Fall Riding

One of my favorite times of year is the fall. I love the crisp days and all the beautiful colors. I also love taking advantage of the last few nice days to hit the trails!

One of my other favorite things is a solitary ride on my favorite equine partner. I won't mention names (he-he), but she enjoys it just as much as I do. Thanks to my wonderfully supportive who lets me sneak out for these rides.



I recently also organized a friends trip to Beacon Rock. (Which sounds like a place NOT to ride horses, but they do have GREAT trails that go for miles)

Andrea's in front:

Susan and Hombre:

The view of the Columbia River Gorge:

Happy Trails!

Pomeroy Farms

Before our friend Emily had her second baby, we decided on one last outing -- an all-families trip to the pumpkin patch! Emily picked Pomeroy Farms, a beautiful farm nestled in the quaint countryside outside of ...... well, I'm not sure. It was definately further out in the country than Nick and I antipicated, but well worth the drive!

We got together with the Willis family as well. Between the three families, we have four beautiful girls (counting Baby Mira, Lilah's obsession)

Addie, Naomi, and Lilah


A Green Pumpkin!



The Daddy-Os: Chris & Nick

Matt (Naomi's Daddy):

Group shot of all the girls:

And the girls with a new friend:

The farm had other activities as well. We went on an extended hay ride, and played with wooden cut-outs:

Of course the girls tore through the hay maze:

And Lilah got eaten by a clown:

Cheers!! (And CONGRATULATIONS to Matt and Emily on the birth of their second daughter, Mia, who arrived a few days after this trip) :)

The Surprise Horse

After a year of running my own business, I got started on buying and selling horses. To be honest, I've developed a reputation for always knowing horses for sale -- now I've just gotten more into the selling part myself. To date, since the beginning of 2010, I have sold 11 horses, bought five, and hopefully permanently secured a long-term care lease on one. (Sweet P.)



One of my most recent purchases was a Draft/Morgan mare, purchased at an auction, bidding against the meat buyer. (Because of her bulk, the meat buyer was VERY interested in taking her to slaughter) I had a chance to look at her before I bid, but there was no information on her. I would like to think I know a good horse when I see one, but I also realize I lucked out too. As it turns it out she was broke to ride: (there's only one way to find out....)



And she was pretty to look at too!


She also had a clever sense of humor. I left her one night tied up while I rode another horse. She did not care of this idea, and calmly dismantled everything within her leg/hoof radius. She even turned herself around (she should be IN the stall area), and this is what I found when I returned to her: (It's hard to see all my grooming brushes strewn everywhere -- but they are there littering the floor!)

I called her "the draft mare" in order not to get attached. She came with no name, but others called her "Surprise", because it was a surprise this is the horse I picked to buy at the auction. But I lucked out in the end -- I owned her for three weeks and sold her for twice what I paid for her. Wish I could do that with every deal....

The Great House Project

After four years of living in our house, Nick and I have finally decided to settle in. Jake and Carol moved out of our basement over Labor Day weekend, so we moved our bedroom and Lilah's bedroom downstairs into the basement. Then, we turned our old bedrooms into a playroom for Lilah:


and a new office for us:

It's been a couple of weeks now since we've made the change and WE LOVE IT!! Suddenly our house feels much more spacious and the lay-out makes a lot more sense for our family. It's wonderful having an easily-accesible office, it's lovely having the bulk of our laundry all on the same floor, it's easier to feed the dog, the house seems to stay cleaner longer, ect, ect.

Honestly, we should've done this sooner!!

Zoo Day!

Now that my friend Andrea is a stay-at-home-mommy, we've been able to get the kids together. Last week Andrea (who's also a zoo member) treated us to a day at the Zoo.



The girls playing on the grass while Zander looks on:


I will go on record and say I was a Bad Mommy. I told Lilah to let me get this picture of her quick before the dinasour tried to eat her. You can imagine how that ended. I barely got this picture before the tears flew. That was one realistic dinasour exhibit....


Of course she got over it just as quickly and moved on to pretending to be a slithering snake:

Chloe and Lilah:

Lilah and I came home and passed out after this trip. But it was a lot fun and hopefully we'll be able to get the kids together again soon...